DIDEROT (Denis). Jacques le fataliste et son maître. Paris: Buisson, Year Five of the Republic [1796]. - 2 volumes in-8, 191 x 116 : (2 ff.), 286 pp. ; (2 ff.), 320 pp. Half tan basane with small white parchment corners, smooth spine decorated, yellow edges (period binding). Adams, Bibliographie des œuvres de Denis Diderot, II, JF1. First edition of this satirical novel by Denis Diderot, published posthumously . It is the last important work of the author, composed as a long dialogue containing all kinds of adventures, stories and digressions extremely varied. "The publication of Jacques le fataliste was made on the basis of a manuscript of unknown origin (but probably from Grimm's library), at the same time that Prince Henry of Prussia communicated to the French National Institute another manuscript of the novel. Buisson took advantage of this circumstance to make the public believe that this manuscript of princely origin had served as a basis for his edition" (Adams, II, p. 179). A copy in contemporary binding from the Ancelot library. The bookplate with this name on the first two boards is usually attributed to the playwright Jacques-François Ancelot, but the attributes on it (painting, palette, etc.) lead us to believe that it is probably that of Virginie Ancelot (1792-1875), his wife, a novelist but also a painter. Missing headpieces, spine rubbed, splits at the hinges. Scattered foxing and some wetness. A perforation affecting the text on the C4 leaf of the first volume. Provenance: Virginie Ancelot ? with bookplate.