WIKIPEDIA:

“ Giacomo Carissimi (baptized April 18, 1605 – January 12, 1674) was an Italian composer, one of the most celebrated masters of the early Baroque, or, more accurately, the Roman School of music.

Biography
His exact birthdate is not known, but it was probably in 1604 or 1605 in Marino, near Rome.
Of his early life almost nothing is known. His father was a barrel maker, and at the age of twenty Giacomo became chapel-master at Assisi. In 1628 he obtained the same position at the church of Sant'Apollinare belonging to the Collegium Germanicum in Rome, which he held until his death. This was despite him receiving several offers to work in very prominent establishments, including an offer to take over from Claudio Monteverdi at Saint Mark's in Venice. In 1637 he was ordained a priest. He seems never to have left Italy.
He died in Rome in 1674.
His successor as maestro di cappella at the Collegio Germanico in 1686, describes him as: Very frugal in his domestic affairs, very noble manners towards friends and acquaintances, tall, thin and prone to melancholy.
The great achievements generally ascribed to him are the further development of the recitative, introduced by Monteverdi, and of infinite importance in the [......] ”

Read more