"Lygie (pronounced Lee-j-ay with the j being the j as used in the word Judge) was founded in 1905 by Alfredo Sironi in Milan. Their bikes were built up using French components.. In 1908, Sironi sold out to Ernesto Rolando of Pavia who in turn sold onwards to Cesare Rizzato (of Atala fame) of Padova in 1932. Because of the initial use of the French components (rare at the time it would seem), it is often mistakenly believed that the company is of French origin. In most continental European languages, the letter y is also known as a greek 'i' or long 'i' and is often used merely as a pronunciation aid and is completely interchangeable with an 'i' so to see both spellings
is not that odd. In Italy, you will also see the letter 'j' interchanges
with the 'y' from time to time too."

Steven Maasland on the CR e-mail list

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