The son of a rich merchant, Musurus became at an early age a pupil of
Janus Lascaris in
Venice. In 1505, Musurus was made professor of
Greek language at the
University of Padua.
Erasmus, who had attended his lectures there, testifies to his knowledge of Latin. However, when the university was closed in 1509 during the
War of the League of Cambrai, he returned to
Venice where he filled a similar post. In 1512 he was made professor of
Greek language in Venice: during this time he published through
Aldus Manutius, a contemporary printer and publisher, his edition on
Plato. This was the first time that the Dialogues were printed in
Greek. In 1516, Musurus was summoned to
Rome by
Pope Leo X, where he lectured in the pope's (
Gymnasium) and established a Greek printing-press. In recognition of a Greek poem prefixed to the
editio princeps of Plato, Leo appointed him
archbishop of
Monemvasia (
Malvasia) in the
Peloponnese, but he died before he left the
Italian peninsula. From 1493, Musurus was associated with the famous printer
Aldus Manutius and belonged to the Neacademia (Aldine Academy of Hellenists), a society founded by Manutius and other learned men for the promotion of Greek studies. Many of the Aldine classics were published under Musurus' supervision, and he is credited with the
first editions of the scholia of
Aristophanes (1498),
Athenaeus (1514),
Hesychius of Alexandria (1514) and
Pausanias (1516). Musuros' handwriting reportedly formed the model of Aldus' Greek type. Among his original compositions Musurus wrote a dedicatory
epigram for Zacharias Kallierges' edition of the
Etymologicum Magnum, in which he praised the genius of the Cretans. Musurus died in Rome. ==See also==