Robertson, James Dissertatio de origine, antiquitate, conservatione, indole, et utilitate, linguae Arabicae; eiusque intima affinitate et convenientia cum lingua Hebraea: nec non de antiquitate scriptionis et punctorum vocalium apud Arabes. Edinburgh R. Fleming et A. Neill. Impensis auctoris 1769
First edition. 8vo (20.5 x 13.5 cm), pp.72. With printed Hebrew and Arabic text. A very good copy in modern boards. Paper label to spine.
ESTC records two copies outside of the UK, at General Theological Seminary and the State Library of Victoria.

A comparative linguistic study of Arabic and Hebrew, by the distinguished Scottish orientalist James Robertson (1714-1795). Robertson studied for a number of years under Jan Jacob Schultens at Leiden. Graduating in 1749, he returned to study under the Hebraist Thomas Hunt at Oxford. In 1751, Robertson was elected to the chair of Hebrew at Edinburgh University, where, from 1763, he also served as the librarian. This essay compares the systems of diacritical markings used in Arabic and Hebrew, and a substantial portion of the Arabic and Hebrew text displays unusually finely printed diacritics. Robertson republished this essay as part of his Clavis Pentateuchi in 1770.