Moll was born in 1903 in
Ciutadella de Menorca,
Balearic Islands,
Spain, the seventh child of Josep Moll Vidal and Maria-Anna Casanovas Oliver. As their first five children died before reaching the age of five, Francesc was very protected as a child. In his book
Els meus primers trenta anys, he writes that his parents, along with his godmother and brother, were the most important figures in his life. Between 1908 and 1911, he learnt to read and write with his teacher, Miquel Villalonga, and he began to learn basic drawing skills. His father also played a part in his education, enforcing his love for the Catalan language. In 1912 he enrolled in a school of theology in Ciutadella de Menorca, focusing on the humanities and specialising in Latin. He was only taught in Spanish, and writes in
Els meus primers trenta anys that he doesn't remember ever being taught about the Catalan language, history, or culture, and never studied Catalan literature or learned to write Catalan, only learning of the existence of
Jacint Verdaguer. As a result, when he began to write professionally, he couldn't imagine doing it in his native Catalan. The arrival of Father
Antoni Maria Alcover at the seminary was a turning point for Moll. Alcover had travelled to Menorca with the intention of studying the different dialects of the island and incorporating them into the dictionary he was writing at the time, which Moll would later become the co-writer of. Although he never studied at university, collaborating with Alcover allowed him to meet German linguists such as Meyer Lübke, Leo Spitzer and Bernhard Schädel. In 1921, he moved to Mallorca to work on the dictionary. Upon the death of Alcover in 1932, Moll continued work on the dictionary and the accompanying
Bolletí, to which he applied the orthographical norms of
Pompeu Fabra, which Alcover had previously not used due to his disagreement with the
Institute of Catalan Studies. Although Alcover played an important role in Moll's Catalan studies, his strong personality caused problems in the linguistic community. The Institute of Catalan Studies didn't mention the Catalan-Valencian-Balearic Dictionary at all at its launch. Alcover had also created his own publisher, which would later become Editorial Moll. After being conscripted, he served on the
Republican side in the
Spanish Civil War. Moll aimed to make Catalan more appreciated and widely taught, focusing most of his work on grammar, vocabulary and Catalan language courses. He also notably contributed to the founding of the , an important Catalan language organization on the Balearic Islands. Moll died in
Palma de Mallorca on 18 February 1991. == Main works ==