OPERA]. DEZÈDE, Nicolas-Alexandre and BOUTET DE MONVEL, Jacques-Marie. Alexis and Justine. Opera in two acts. In French, manuscript on paper, France, probably Paris, after 1785. 1 small folio of [1] title leaf and 86 ff, preceded by a flyleaf (foliotation of the time, in ink, in the hand of the text), complete, title page inscribed in a frame of triple fillet in ink and adorned with a composition in pen and watercolour depicting a set of instruments (lute, horn, violin and its bow), a score in treble clef on two staves and a theatrical mask, musical notation on 13 to 18 staves per page. Bound in contemporary half vellum with corners, covered with blue paper with glue, title label decorated with yellow paper glued on the upper cover with handwritten title. Binding unfortunately rather deteriorated by time and humidity: worn cardboard (strong epidermal marks notably on the upper board, important wear of the boards), fragile jaws, two missing corners, incomplete and broken spine, leaving the stitching on the nerves exposed. Dimensions: 318 x 231 mm. Beautiful handwritten copy, preserved in its original cardboard, of the first printed score of the comic opera Alexis et Justine, written by Boutet de Monvel and set to music by Dézède, nicknamed l'Orphée des champs. This score was part of the small musical library assembled by the famous painter Claude Joseph Vernet (1714-1789), a music lover and close friend of the composers of his time. Provenance: 1. autograph bookplate at the bottom right of the title page, Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789). - 2. bookplate stamped in black ink, "Le Blanc Com[...]". A scholarly note from the first half of the 19th century referring to the bibliographic dictionary of Abbé de Feller (1735-1802), which was reprinted several times from 1780 to 1867.)