Gheorghe Şincai

Gheorghe Șincai (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈɡe̯orɡe ˈʃiŋkaj]; February 28, 1754 – November 2, 1816) was an ethnic Romanian Transylvanian historian, philologist, translator, poet, and representative of the Enlightenment-influenced Transylvanian School.

As the director of Greek Catholic education in Transylvania he brought a fundamental contribution to the process of promoting culture in rural environments. With Samuil Micu he composed the first written grammar of the Romanian language: Elementa linguae daco-romanae sive valachicae (The elements of the Daco-Roman or Wallachian language) (Vienna, 1780), in which he demonstrated the Latin origins of the Romanian language.

Born in Râciu de Câmpie, now Mureș County, he studied at Târgu-Mureș, Cluj, Bistrița, Blaj, Vienna and Rome (in the last two cities together with Samuil Micu, nephew of Bishop Inocențiu Micu-Klein).

He turned out to be a polyglot, thoroughly mastering Greek, Latin, Hungarian, German, Italian and French. His knowledge and culture allowed him to occupy the function of librarian of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in Rome, having permission to research any type of document. In the Papal States, and later in Hungary and in Vienna (the capital of the Habsburg domains), he carried out research work in various libraries, copying and transcribing exactly any reference to the history of the Romanians.

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