The following is based on Moleskine’s own company history, which is included with each of the notebooks they sell.

Prior to being a company, a moleskine was a type of notebook. This was the notebook favored by the likes of Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, and Vincent Van Gogh. This notebook style was characterized by rounded corners, a leather cover, some sort of closure, a ribbon to keep one’s page, and usually an expandable pocket on the inside of the rear cover. These were a French product, made in Paris, but with no brand closely associated with them.

By the 1980s these types of notebooks, as well as the local paperie and bookbinder, had largely started to disappear. In 1987, when visiting Tours in southern France, Bruce Chatwin says he visited the local paperie and purchased all of their notebooks as well any those at other stores but the supply was still not sufficient. One shop owner told him, “Le vrai moleskine n’est plus,” or “The true moleskine no longer exists.”

Then, in 1997, the Moleskine company was founded in Milan by Francesco Franceschi, based upon the idea of Maria Sebregondi, who is a co-founder of the company. It was then known as Modo & Modo and soon trademarked the Moleskine brand (not having had invented the original does not prevent the creating of a trademark). The initial run was just 5,000 notebooks and used synthetic leather, unlike the original French moleskines.