After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Venice received an influx of Greek refugees. The Venetians gave the lost children of the Empire the opportunity to retain their cultural identity; moreover, the lagoon city was a natural crossing point between East and West, and as such acted as tributary for Greek knowledge to Western Europe. This move West was the destiny of the Greek proverbs tradition too. Divided into three related chapters – dedicated respectively to Michael Apostolis, his son Arsenius Apostolis and Desiderius Erasmus –, this paper aims to present some features of these scholars’ work. It intends to retrace some of the steps from Apostolis’ Violarium to Erasmus’ Adages, and finally highlight the role Venice played between XVth and XVIth centuries in the proverbs field. It was most likely the real starting point for the “Renaissance” of Greek paremiology.