Aranka Gyorgy was born on September 15, 1737 at Sic, in the county of Cluj, but spent most of his life in Tîrgu-Mureș holding various positions with the Royal Table. The illuminist ideas he promoted contributed to the  enlightenment of the town The education he received at home – his father was a protestant priest – was completed with studies at the colleges of Tîrgu-Mureș and Aiud. He began working at the Royal Table in 1764, and became its assessor in 1782. Influenced by the enlightened ideas of his time, Aranka  fought to increase the cultural level of the masses by promoting native language. He kept an assiduous correspondence with Hungarian writers, people of culture and scientist and wanted to establish an association for the cultivation of the Hungarian language, for publishing historical manuscripts, scientific works etc. His proposal was analysed and approved by the Dieta of Cluj in 1791. Aranka was appointed secretary general. The association”™s first meeting was held in Tîrgu-Mureș in 1793, and it functioned until 1806. Aranka was also involved in the establishment of a museum and of an encyclopaedic library. He suggested for a permanent theatre to be set up to enlighten the masses and was the first to translate Shakespeare”™s “Richard the 3rd” into Hungarian. He promoted the cooperation between Romanian, Hungarian and German intellectuals in Transylvania. Gheorghe Sincai was a collaborator of Aranka whom he describes as: “…the famous and worthy of the name of polyhistor”. In his last years of life, after the association ceased to function, he dedicated himself to literature and philosophy. Aranka died on March 11, 1817, aged 80. Bibliography: Ladislau Kocziany- Aranka György in vol. Profiluri mureșene, vol. I, Tîrgu-Mureș, 1971.