CARISSIMI, GIACOMO, one of the most celebrated masters of the Italian, or, more accurately, the Roman school of music. Of his life almost nothing is known, and Fetis, who has made his biography a subject of special study, has been able to do little snore than correct inaccurate or fictitious statements of previous writers. The only authenticated facts are the following. Carissimi was born about 1604, at Marino, near Rome, and received his first musical education at home. At the age of 20 he became chapel-master at Assisi, and in 1628 he obtained the same position at the church of St Apollinaris, belonging to the Collegium Germanicum in Rome, which he held till his death in 1674. He never seems to have left Italy, the rumour of his prolonged stay in Paris, mentioned by De Fresneux, being entirely unfounded. By his education he belonged to the old Roman school of music, but his compositions show little of the severe grandeur of the earlier masters. He marks indeed the turning-point from the traditions of the Renaissance period to the incipient aspirations of modern music, and for that reason his name is 'representative in the history of art. The two great achievements generally ascribed to him are the further development of the recitative, lately introduced by Monteverde, and of infinite importance in the history of dramatic music, and the invention of the cantata, a smaller form of the oratorio, by which Carissimi superseded the madrigals formerly in use. He also may claim the merit of having given greater variety and interest to the instrumental accompaniments of vocal compositions. Carissimi's numerous compositions consist of masses, cantatas, motets, and oratorios. The complete collection of his works, formerly said to have existed in the musical archives of the church of St Apollinaris, has entirely disappeared. Several English musical scholars deserve honourable mention for having rescued Carissimi's works from oblivion. Dr Burney and Hawkins have published specimens of his compositions in their works on the history of music ; and Dr Aldrich collected an almost complete set of his compositions, at present in the library of Christ Church, Oxford. The British Museum also possesses numerous valuable works by this great Italian master.

CA.11LETON, SIR DUDLEY (1573-1651), an English statesman, was born in Oxfordshire in 1573, and educated at Christ Church College, Oxford. He went in a diplomatic capacity to the Low Countries when King James resigned the cautionary towns to the States ; and he was afterwards employed for twenty-nine years as ambassador to Venice, Savoy, and the United Provinces. Charles I. created him 'Viscount Dorchester, and appointed him one of his principal secretaries of state, an office which he held till his death in 1651. He published several works, consisting chiefly of speeches, letters, and other productions on political subjects. The most valuable appeared after his death, and consist of a selection of letters to and from Sir Dudley Carleton during his embassy to Holland, from January 1616 to December 1620, 4to, 1757. A careful pedigree of the Carleton family will be found in the preface to Chamberlaine's Letters, Camden Society, 1861.