Born at Dudley, then in Worcestershire, Moss matriculated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, 21 March 1820.
In 1847 he moved from Dudley to Longdon, near Lichfield, and in 1848 to the Manor House, Upton Bishop, in Herefordshire.
Publicity material made comparisons with works of Guillaume-François Debure, the Manuel of Jacques Charles Brunet and the Introduction to the Knowledge of the Editions of the Classics of Thomas Frognall Dibdin; and claimed improvements over those of Edward Harwood and Michael Maittaire.
Favourable reviews appeared, but the Literary Gazette (1825), in three articles, severely attacked the book.
A reply from Moss was in the Gentleman's Magazine for September 1825: he admitted that he had borrowed the plan of his work from Dibdin.