György Aranka (17 September 173711 March 1817) was a Hungarian writer.

Biography

He was born in Szék (today

Sic, Cluj Sic ( hu, Szék; german: Secken) is a commune in Cluj County, Transylvania, Romania. It is composed of a single village, Sic. A former salt-mining town, the commune is located in the eastern part of the county, in the Transylvanian Plain, south ...

Szolnok-Doboka County Szolnok-Doboka was an administrative county (comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is now in northern Romania (northern Transylvania). The capital of the county was Dés (now Dej, Romania). Geography Szolnok-Doboka county shared ...

, Principality of Transylvania. His father György Aranka Senior was the bishop of the Transylvanian Reformed Church. He studied in Marosvásárhely (today ''Târgu Mureş'' in Romania) and

Nagyenyed Aiud (; la, Brucla, hu, Nagyenyed, Hungarian pronunciation: ; german: Straßburg am Mieresch) is a city located in Alba County, Transylvania, Romania. The city's population is 22,876. It has the status of municipality and is the 2nd-largest c ...

(today ''Aiud''). For his civil profession he was a lawyer and started his career as a clerk, then worked in different positions in the courts of law of Marosvásárhely. In 1796, he became judge of the supreme court of

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...

. His activity was of very broad range and had a great importance in the Hungarian cultural history. He was an enthusiastic promoter of the Hungarian public education and the cultivation of the

Hungarian language Hungarian () is an Uralic language spoken in Hungary and parts of several neighbouring countries. It is the official language of Hungary and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. Outside Hungary, it is also spoken by Hungarian ...

. His poems were published in the magazines Magyar Hírmondó (1780), Magyar Museum and Orpheus. During the 1791 session of the Transylvanian parliament, he established the a society for the cultivation of the Hungarian language in Transylvania, and was elected its secretary. In 1792, he organized the Old Manuscript Society for the publishing of old Transylvanian mémoires. He died in Marosvásárhely.

References

Hungarian writers People from Cluj County 1737 births 1817 deaths {{Hungary-writer-stub