In 1950, a company in Ivrea, a small town in Piedmont, made a portable typewriter and called it the Lettera 22. Today it sits in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Fifteen years later, the same company presented a programmable calculator small enough to sit on a desk: the Programma 101.
Our leather MacBook sleeve is named after this town. Named after it, not made there. Ivrea gives the sleeve a name and an idea: a machine should be built around the person who carries it.
The Ivrea MacBook sleeve is named after Ivrea, the Piedmont town whose Olivetti company made the Lettera 22 portable typewriter (1950, now at MoMA) and presented the Programma 101, one of the first desktop computers, in 1965. UNESCO listed Ivrea in 2018. The town is the name, not the origin. The sleeve is pull-up leather, 20mm slim, open at the top, and doubles as a mouse pad.
- Ivrea names the sleeve. The town gives it a name and an idea, not an origin.
- Camillo Olivetti founded his company in Ivrea in 1908. Its M1, shown in Turin in 1911, was the first Italian typewriter.
- The Lettera 22 portable typewriter of 1950, designed by Marcello Nizzoli, is in the collection of MoMA.
- Olivetti presented the Programma 101, a programmable desktop calculator, in New York in 1965.
- UNESCO inscribed "Ivrea, industrial city of the 20th century" on the World Heritage List on 1 July 2018.
- The sleeve: pull-up leather in cognac or espresso, a 20mm profile, an open top with no zip, sizes from 13.3 to 16 inches.
What is Ivrea known for?
For a factory that was designed as part of a town. On 1 July 2018, at a meeting in Manama, UNESCO inscribed "Ivrea, industrial city of the 20th century" on its World Heritage List.
The listing covers a large factory and the buildings around it: offices, social services and housing. UNESCO says they were designed mostly between the 1930s and the 1960s, and links them to the Community Movement, the Movimento Comunità.
UNESCO's decision explains the reason in plain terms. The company was founded in 1908 by Camillo Olivetti and made typewriters, mechanical calculators and desktop computers. The site records the work of Italian modernist architects and designers, and the transition from mechanical to digital industries.
Ivrea is not famous for one building. It is famous for thinking about the factory, the office and the home together.
Why is a typewriter from Ivrea in a museum?
Because it made the typewriter something you take with you. The Museum of Modern Art in New York lists the Lettera 22 as a portable typewriter of 1950, with an enamelled metal housing, designed by Marcello Nizzoli. The manufacturer is given as Ing. C. Olivetti & C., Ivrea, Italy. Its object number is 240.1953.
The Olivetti chronology notes that it earned a permanent place in that museum.
MoMA also holds a later portable from the same maker: the Valentine, in ABS plastic, dated 1968, by Ettore Sottsass and Perry King.
The word that matters here is "portable". That is the idea we borrowed for a sleeve.
Was the Programma 101 the first personal computer?
It is often called that, but the claim is debated, so we do not make it. Olivetti's official description was a programmable desktop calculator, a calcolatore programmabile da tavolo. The chronology kept by the Associazione Archivio Storico Olivetti records that it was presented in New York in 1965.
The Italian Wikipedia entry adds the details. It was shown at the BEMA fair in New York in October 1965. The project was led by the engineer Pier Giorgio Perotto, and the industrial design was by Mario Bellini. Around 44,000 units were made between 1966 and 1971. The same entry says part of the history of computing considers it the first personal computer, and that this is disputed.
The fair way to describe it is "one of the first desktop computers", which is also how our product page puts it. What is not in doubt is the direction: a computer that fits on a desk.
| Year | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1908 | Camillo Olivetti founds his company in Ivrea | Archivio Storico Olivetti; UNESCO |
| 1911 | The M1, the first Italian typewriter, is shown in Turin | Archivio Storico Olivetti |
| 1950 | The Lettera 22 portable typewriter | MoMA |
| 1965 | The Programma 101 is presented in New York | Archivio Storico Olivetti |
| 1968 | The Valentine portable typewriter (MoMA date) | MoMA |
| 2018 | UNESCO inscribes Ivrea as a World Heritage Site | UNESCO |
Who was Adriano Olivetti?
An engineer and industrialist, and the man behind the Community Movement that UNESCO names. The Treccani encyclopaedia gives his life as Ivrea, 1901, to Aigle, Switzerland, 1960. The Fondazione Adriano Olivetti gives his birth date as 11 April 1901, and the Olivetti chronology records his death on 27 February 1960.
He became director general of the company in the early 1930s and its president in 1938. In 1948 he founded the Movimento di Comunità. He was elected to parliament in 1958, created a publishing house, Edizioni di Comunità, and presided over Italy's national institute of urban planning.
Treccani lists the architects and designers he worked with, Nizzoli among them. That is the thread through Ivrea: machines and buildings designed for the same idea.
What happens in Ivrea at carnival time?
Every winter, oranges. The Storico Carnevale di Ivrea is the town's great festival, and its centre is the Battaglia delle Arance, the Battle of the Oranges, fought over three days in the main squares.
- A rule everyone knows. The red cap, the Berretto Frigio, marks you as a spectator. From Fat Thursday, the Giovedì Grasso, by order of the carnival's General, everyone is invited to wear it until Shrove Tuesday. The official guide says wearing it spares you from the "gentle and moderate throwing of oranges".
- A heroine. The symbolic lead of the festival is the Vezzosa Mugnaia, the miller's daughter.
- Dates. The 2026 edition ran from 6 January to 18 February. The next one opens on 6 January 2027.
- A local wine. Erbaluce di Caluso DOCG, a white wine from the morainic amphitheatre of Ivrea, which its producers' consortium calls the wine heart of the Canavese.
The carnival is a civic rite with its own rules and centuries of history, not a food fight for visitors. We mention it with that respect.
What does a town of typewriters have to do with a MacBook sleeve?
Not the making. The Ivrea sleeve is not made in Ivrea, and its leather does not come from there. We would rather say that plainly than let the name suggest it.
What we borrowed is the direction of the Lettera 22 and the Programma 101. Take a machine that belonged to an office and make it belong to a person. Today that machine is a laptop, and it needs something simple to travel in.
So the sleeve carries the MacBook, and when the MacBook comes out, it lies flat as a mouse pad or slips under the laptop as a base pad. For a wider comparison, read our guide to a leather MacBook sleeve vs a folio iPad case.
What is the Ivrea sleeve, and which laptops does it fit?
The Ivrea pull-up leather MacBook sleeve is cut from pull-up leather, the kind that lightens where it stretches and darkens where it folds. These are the facts from its product page:
- Leather: pull-up leather that marks with use. The marks are the point.
- Colours: cognac, which lightens with use, and espresso, which deepens.
- Profile: 20mm front to back, so it disappears into a bag.
- Listed sizes: 33cm at 13-inch, 35.5cm at 14-inch and 40cm at 16-inch.
- Opening: open top, no zip and no flap. Nothing metal near the screen and nothing hard to scratch the lid.
- Second use: a mouse pad, or a base pad under the laptop.
The size selector lists MacBook Pro 14 and 16 (M1 to M5), MacBook Air 13.6 (M2 to M5), MacBook Pro 16 (2019), MacBook Air 13 (2018 to 2020, including M1) and MacBook Pro 13 (2016 to 2022, including M1 and M2). It also offers 13.3-inch, 14.2-inch and 16-inch options for other laptops. Choose your exact model in the selector, and write to us if yours is not listed.
Pull-up leather shows its history. Over months it develops a patina, the record of how you carry it. Our article on leather patina explains how it forms, and our leather guide explains how pull-up differs from Crazy Horse, oil-wax and Nappa.
See all our MacBook sleeves and desk accessories. For another town in this series, read Cremona, the city of violins.
Frequently asked questions
Why is the sleeve called Ivrea?
After the Piedmont town where Olivetti made the Lettera 22 portable typewriter and presented the Programma 101. Ivrea gives the sleeve a name and an idea, not an origin.
Does the Ivrea sleeve come from Ivrea?
No. The town gives the sleeve its name. The sleeve is not made there, and its leather does not come from there.
Was the Programma 101 the first personal computer?
Some historians call it that, but the claim is disputed. Its official name was a programmable desktop calculator, and it is fair to call it one of the first desktop computers.
Which MacBook sizes does the sleeve come in?
13-inch, 14-inch and 16-inch sizes, for MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models listed in the size selector, plus options for other 13.3, 14.2 and 16-inch laptops.
Does the sleeve have a zip?
No. The top is open and the leather grips the laptop, so there is nothing metal near the screen.
Can I use it as a mouse pad?
Yes. Slide the MacBook out and the sleeve lies flat as a mouse pad, or sits under the laptop as a base pad.
Will the leather change colour?
Yes. Pull-up leather lightens where it stretches and darkens where it folds. Cognac lightens with use and espresso deepens.
Written by the Capini Firenze team. We work with these leathers every day and update this guide when our materials change.
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