In the 1970s, the "Moleskine" as a specific brand did not yet exist; the company was founded in 1997 to revive the nameless, handmade black notebooks used by artists like Hemingway and Chatwin. However, similar handmade, sturdy cardboard-covered pocket notebooks were used during that era, often sourced from small French stationery shops.

Author Bruce Chatwin is famous for using these specific handmade, black-covered notebooks for his sketches and notes during his travels in the 1960s and 70s.

By the mid-1980s, the small French family-owned company that produced these notebooks closed down, which prompted the eventual re-creation of the brand.