MICHAEL APOSTOLIOS. - Greek humanist, died at about sixty years of age c. 1480. Taken prisoner by the Turks during the conquest of Constantinople, he was later freed and came to Italy. After some time he settled in Crete, where he devoted himself to teaching and copying manuscripts. Cardinal Bessarion always held him as a friend and greatly assisted him; for this reason A. composed his funeral oration (PG 161, 127-40).
Among the works of A. which all demonstrate the author’s erudition are to be noted: a collection of proverbs (ed. E. A. Leutsch, in Corpus paroemiographorum graeco-rum, II, Göttingen 1851, pp. 233-74), a collection of letters (ed. H. Noiret, Lettres inédites de M. A..., Paris 1889; E. Darkó in Byzant. Zeitsch., 26 [1926], p. 428) and various other writings (ed. H. Noiret, ibid.; G. Hyperides, Smyrna 1876; L. Mohler, Aus Bessarions Gelehrtenkreis, Paderborn 1942, pp. 159-69). -