Bulgari

Bulgari (Italian pronunciation: [ˈbulɡari]) is an Italian jewelry and luxury goods brand that produces and markets several product lines including jewelry, watches, fragrances, accessories, and hotels.

Etymology

The trademark is usually written BVLGARI in the classical Latin alphabet, and is derived from the Surname of the company's Greek founder, Sotir Bulgari (Greek: Σωτήρ Βούλγαρη, Greek pronunciation: [soˈtir ˈvulɣari], Italian: Sotir Bulgari(1857–1932).

History

Sotirios Boulgaris, born in an Aromanian village known as Kalarites, a son of Greek immigrants, began his career as a jeweller in his home village Paramythia (Epirus, Greece), where his first store can still be seen. In 1877, he left for Corfu and then Naples. In 1881 he finally moved to Rome, where in 1884 he founded his company and opened his second shop in Via Sistina. The store in Via Sistina was then replaced by the current flagship store in Via dei Condotti opened in 1905 by Bulgari with the help of his two sons, Costantino (1889–1973) and Giorgio (1890–1966).

Bulgari (instrument)

The bulgari or boulgari (Greek: μπουλγαρί) is a string instrument that originates from Turkey, especially from Anatolia among the Oghuz Turks living in the Taurus Mountains, similar to the bağlama and the çağür., especially to Egypt and Crete. belonging to the 'tampoura' family and closely related to the 'tzoura', it is playe with strings plucked with a pick. This long-necked lute first appeared towards the end of the 18th century and became well-known after 1915 through the Greeks of Asia Minor. It was mainly played in Rethimno during the mid-war and owes its popularity to Stelio Foustalieri. It is rarely come across in Crete today.

Origin

The bulgari originates from Turkey as an evolution of the saz, a six to eight sting chordophone that most likely descended from other central Asian instruments. It would take its name from the Bulgars tribes of the Volga region with which the Turk had been in contact with. It, however, has no direct link with the Bulgarian Bugarija, another similar lute also called a tambura, due to the isolation of the Bulgars. The Bulgari belongs to the family of tambûrs, an instrument class that started in early Mesopotamia, which started to spread in the Ottaman Empire approximately around 14th-century. The French musicologist William André Villoteau mentioned in his journal an instrument with two strings existing in Cairo called the tanbour boulghari or bulgarie The bulgari proceeded to implant itself into Greek culture through Crete when refugees came from Anatolia in 1920, although a type of bulgari seems to have existed in the 19th-century among Christian and Muslim populations.