l Norman portions. Only the
site can be traced of the Cistercian priory to which it belonged. This
was founded shortly after the Conquest and originated from the endowment
which the monks of Lyre near Evreux held in Bowcombe, including the
church, mill, houses, land and tithes of the manor. Richard II. bestowed
it on the abbey of Mountgrace in Yorkshire. It was restored by Henry
IV., but was dissolved by act of parliament in the reign of Henry V.,
who bestowed it on his newly-founded charter-house at Sheen. Carisbrooke
formerly had a considerable market, several mills, and valuable
fisheries, but it never acquired municipal or representative rights, and
was important only as the site of the castle.

See _Victoria County History--Hampshire_; William Westall, _History of
Carisbrooke Castle_ (1850).

CARISSIMI, GIACOMO (c. 1604-1674), one of the most celebrated masters of
the Italian, or, more accurately, the Roman school of music, was born
about 1604 in Marino (near Rome). Of his life almost nothing is known.
At the age of twenty 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 on the
12th of January 1674, at Rome. He seems never to have left Italy. 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of the chamber-cantata, by which Carissimi superseded the madrigals
formerly in use. His position in the history of church music and vocal
chamber music is somewhat similar to that of Cavalli in the history of
opera. It is impossible to say who was really the inventor of the
chamber-cantata; but Carissimi and Luigi Rossi were the composers who
first made this form the vehicle for the most intellectual style of
chamber-music, a function which it continued to perform until the death
of Alessandro Scarlatti, Astorga and Marcello. Of his oratorios
_Jephthah_ has been published by Novello & Co., and is well known; this
work and others are important as definitely establishing the form of
oratorio unaccompanied by dramatic action, which has maintained its hold
to the present day. He also may claim the merit of having given greater
variety and interest to the instrumental accompaniments of vocal
compositions. Dr Burney and Sir John