Second edition. Octavo (204 x120mm). Bound in contemporary tree calf lavishly decorated in gilt, with a red morocco title label to the spine lettered gilt.
 
A near fine copy, the binding very attractive, a few leaves strengthened to the margins.
 
John Richardson (1741-1811) was an important orientalist whose best known work is his Dictionary of Persian, Arabic, and English, printed in two volumes at the Clarendon Press in 1777.
 
This prefatory Dissertation was first published, separately from the Dictionary in 1777 and reissued in this second edition the following year when it was expanded to include “Additional Observations” and “Further Remarks” relating to an academic dispute with Jacob Bryant on ancient mythology.