The Moleskine is the modern-day successor to the legendary notebook used by famed artists and thinkers, most notably Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Ernest Hemingway. The simple black folio with rounded corners, an elastic page-holder, and an internal pocket was originally a nameless object, produced for over a century by a small French bookbinder that supplied the stationery shops of Paris.

Moleskine was introduced again as a brand in 1997, with a product line including notebooks, diaries, journals, bags, writing instruments and reading accessories, with headquarters in Milan, Italy.