Career
From 1790 to 1804 he served as chancellor of the exchequer for Salzburg, afterwards residing in Munich and Augsburg, where he devoted his energies to natural history. During his career he amassed a library of 80,000 books, including many rare volumes on natural history. He also owned a diverse collection of zoological specimens, a significant herbarium in which Alpine flora was well represented, and an impressive mineral collection, of which, a portion was bought by the British Museum.
The moss genus Mollia (Schrank ex Lindb, 1878) from the family Pottiaceae is named after him.