Geremia Discanno (sometimes spelled Di Scanno) (20 May 1839 – 14 January 1907) was an Italian genre and landscape painter,[1] who collaborated with archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli, art historian Emil Presuhn, and Naples-based chromolithographer Victor Steeger, to record wall paintings in the Roman ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum that were being excavated at the time.

[2] Barletta at the time of the Bourbons, and in particular during the reign of Ferdinand II, nicknamed the "Bomb King" for having his own subjects cannonaded, was an extremely class-oriented city and those who could afford it gathered regularly near Discanno's home beneath the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher with its bronze Colossus of Heraclius in front.

Raffael was imprisoned for two years while Gennaro, Discanno's father, suffered only a one-year sentence to a spiritual retreat in a monastery of Capuchin friars because of his relationships with the church and local clergy.

Geremia Discanno demonstrated his natural gift for art by painting "King Manfredi's Tournament" in 1859, a copy of a curtain made for the Piccinni Theater in Bari by the eminent Terlizzi painter, Michele De Napoli.

With the unification of Italy in 1860, the legal status of Pompeii changed from being a royal possession from which monarchs could use the site to obtain antiquities for their private collections or to gift artifacts to illustrious foreign guests, to property of the state.

Archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli was named superintendent and he began to manage the excavations to transform Pompeii into a place to visit to gain a glimpse into the past of western civilization and begin to understand those who went before the modern world.

[2] However, De Nittis left suddenly for Paris and the bright lights of the Ville Lumière[4] while Discanno returned south, retiring in solitude to a remote farm in the Canosan countryside.

[2] In 1890, Discanno was commissioned by the empress Elizabeth Amelie Eugenie von Witterback, wife of Franz Joseph of Hapsburg, emperor of Austria-Hungary, to decorate the vaults and stairways of her imperial villa known as the Achilleion, on the Greek island of Corfu with Pompeian designs.

When the trial went badly for the subordinate, the man insisted the solution was poisonous whereby Discanno dramatically seized the evidence vial of the liquid and took a sip to prove the falsity of the claim.

[2] BOERMANN KARL, Kunstchronik: Wochenschriftfür Kunst und Kunstgewerbe, n o 41 - Leipzig, July 19, 1877 CHRISTOMANOS CONSTANTIN, "Elizabeth of Austria in Constantin Christomanos' diary sheets" edited by Verena von der Heyden-Rynsch, translation by Maria Gregorio - Adelphi Edizioni SpA - Milan, 1989 COMANDUCCI AM, "Italian painters of the 19th century" - Milan, 1934 DELPINO FILIPPO, "Felice Barnabei and art and antiquarian collecting in Ghia tofilo mas.

1 - 11 territory outside the walls" by CRSEC Regional Center for Educational Cultural Services - Bari, 2003 FARESE SPERKEN CHRISTINE, "19th century painting in Puglia" - Mario Adda Editore - Bari, 1996 FIORELLI GIUSEPPE, "The excavations of Pompeii from 1861 to 1872", Italian typography of the Liceo V. Emanuele - Naples, 1873 "Description of Pompeii", Italian typography of the Liceo V. Emanuele ImageNapoli, 1875 FURCHHEIM FRIEDRICH, "Bibliography of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabia" ImageNaples, 1891 GIONTA DANIELE, "Pastures and antiques - correspondence with Felice Barnabei (1895-1912)", - 2014 GAEDESCHENS, RUDOLF, "Unedirte antike Bildwerke", Jena, 1873, courtesy Universitatsbibliothek Heidelberg HERON DE VILLEFOSSE ANTOINE, "L'argenterie et les bijoux d'or du Trésor de Boscoreale", Ernst Leroux Editeur, Paris, 1903 IASIELLO ITALO, "Naples from capital to suburbs - Archeology and antiques market in Campaniq in the second half of the 19th century", Federico II University Press - Naples, 2017 MARTORANA PIETRO, "Biographical and bibliographic information of the writers of the Neapolitan dialect", Chiurazzi Editore, Naples, 1874 MAU AUGUST, "Geschichte der decorativen Wandmalerei in Pompeji, Printing and publishing ( edited by) G. Reimeer, Berlin, 1882 MIRAGLIA, MARINA AND OSANNA MASSIMO, "Pompeii, photography", Electaphoto, Verona, 2015 NECCO LUIGI, "The mystery of Troy.

F. Giannini ImageNaples, 1879 SCHARF GEORGE JR., "The Pompeian Court in the Crystal Palace", Crystal Palace Library - London, 1854 SIOTTO ELIANA, 'Wall pictures from Vesuvian sites: the question of paints in the second half of the nineteenth century", in "Rivista di studi Pompeiani - XV", L'erma di Breitschneider - Pompei, 2004 SOGLIANO ANTONIO, "The Archaeological School of Pompeii", Regia Accademia dei Lincei - Rome, 1940, in "Various writings" pag.

SZTÀRAY IRMA, "Elisabeth the last years", A. Holzausen - Vienna, 1909 VERBANCK-PIÉRARD ANNIE, "La villa romaine de Publius Fannius Synistor à Boscoreale" - Morlanwelz (BE), 2010 VISTA FRANCESCO SAVERIO, "Barletta before and after 1860", Stab.

Typographic G. Dellisanti - Barletta, 1899 "Fondo FS Vista" documentary collection at the De Gemmis Library in Bari, containing autographed notes of historical research never published.