At some point during the years I’ve been writing this blog, I remember coming across some discussion about whether the “regular” size Moleskine notebook was the pocket size or the large size. Many people consider the large size to be the default, and I’ve seen customer reviews on Amazon where people give the pocket notebooks 1 star because they’re “too small.” For me the pocket size has always been my go-to, but I do have a couple of the large ones too. I came across them while reorganizing my collection, and stopped to take a closer look to see if there was anything I should have included in my article on The Evolution of Moleskine Notebook Packaging. I realized that these belly-bands on the early Modo e Modo stock settle the question:
For the Moleskine brand, the pocket size was the original inspiration, and the large size “evolved from” it. And from what I’ve seen in museums, the notebooks used by artists in the early 20th century were indeed closer to the 9 x 14cm pocket format, though they certainly had other sketchbooks that were larger.
If anyone had a bar bet riding on this question, I’m happy to accept a portion of your winnings!
Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the only Moleskine available at Borders and Barnes and Nobel was the pocket-sized, black, hard cover. They were branded Modo a Modo and imported by Kikerland, if memory serves correctly, and they included a sheet of goofy stickers. About 2005, the red covers and reporter styles started showing up along with planners, address books, horizontal pockets, and the five-topic and music versions. Most of these items were pocket-only but the reporters came in the medium size, 5×8″. I have a couple in the archives. It was also sometime around 2005-2007 that Rhodia’s webnotebooks showed up. I gravitated to these because of the lovely orange covers.