Since no autographic sources of Arabesque have been found, it is difficult to determine the exact date of composition. Whereas the endpaper of Schumanns hand copy of the first edition bears the note "Vienna 1839", the Arabesque appears as the first piece of the year 1839 on a list. Schumann himself dates it 1838 in a letter of 15 March 1839.

The present edition is based on the music text of the Gesamtausgabe of Robert Schumanns works, edited by Clara Schumann together with Johannes Brahms and others between 1879 und 1893. This publication is almost entirely free from arbitrary alterations in the text. A few obvious errors were eliminated after a thorough comparison with the first edition.