Frédéric Duvernoy's Méthode pour le Cor was first published in 1802 (Paris: A l'Imprimerie du Conservatoire de Musique) and later reprinted by Simrock (Bonn, 1830). This copy of the first edition is bound in heavy paper boards, with a hand-written title on the cover. The name "Dolivot" is written on the inside back cover raising the quesion of who this M. Dolivot might have been.

According to Reginald Morley-Pegge (The French Horn, pp. 96-7):

In 1803 [sic] Frédéric Duvernoy published his Méthode pour le Cor, a work whose author was clearly a man of superior intelligence. Though simpler in its lay-out and less exhaustive than the admirable Méthode de Premier ed de Second Cor that Domnich was to bring out five years later, it nevertheless embodies all the basic principles on which the superb 19th century French school of horn playing was founded, while it pioneered the method of teaching that was to find its ultimate expression in Dauprat's monumental Méthode de Cor Alto et Cor Basse, a huge volume of some 350 super royal quarto pages, of which more than a hundred are text. Duvernoy's tutor is admirably clear as far as it goes, and is certainly much better suited to the beginner than the more abstruse works of Domnich and Dauprat. He confines his teaching to cor mixte; from which it may be gathered that this last is outside the province of anyone who has not already made himself master of one or other of the two recognized orders. He was the first to include a chromatic scale over the entire range of the instrument with an indication of the degree of stopping required for each note, and the first to concern himself, to however a small extent, with the musical and artistic development of the student.

Duvernoy states his purpose and at the same time acknowledges his difference of opinion from his colleagues in his approach to the horn in the preface (translated by Birchard Coar in A Critical Study of Nineteenth Century Virtuosi in France, 1952, p. 41):

To risk writing a Method for this difficult instrument is without doubt to expose oneself to the criticism of persons whose opinions differ on the manner of playing it and, above all, of teaching it. There has not appeared until now any elementary work for this purpose. It is only after having well calculated its possibilities, and having reflected deeply upon the advantages of which it is capable, that I have believed myself able to indicate a proper type of excercise to conquer the difficulties which it (the horn) presents. I have thought that in spite of the few ideas which are offered for demonstrating it, one ought not to neglect them, since they can contribute to helping beginners in the work they undertake.
The horn, as well as all other instruments, has a range which is proper to it, but as the arrangement of the organs is not uniform in different persons who play it, some have natural aptitude for forming the low tones and others for taking the high tones. It is in consequence of the natural physical dispositions that I have thought some one ought to establish the distinction of the two kinds of horn.

Reginald Morley-Pegge (The French Horn, pp. 155-6, 103) describes M. Duvernoy as follows:

DUVERNOY, Frédéric-Nicolas (1765-1838). Born on 16 October 1765, at Montbéliard in the east of France, he was, according to Fétis, a self-taught musician. We find him in Paris in the orchestra of the Comédie Italienne in 1788 and as a soloist at the Concert Spirituel. Two years later he joined the band of the Garde Nationale and in the same year became second horn at the Opéra-Comique, with Vandenbroeck as first. In 1795 he was appointed senior professor of horn at the Conservatoire, the other three being Buch (first horns), with Kenn and Domnich(second horns). He entered the orchestra of the Opéra in 1796, becoming solo horn three years later, with Buch, Kenn, Vandenbroeck, and Paillard as the regular supporting quartet. On the re-establishment by Napoléon Bonapart of the Chapelle Musique, Duvernoy, whom Napoléon is said greatly to have admired, was appointed first horn, a position he held until 1830. He retired from the Opéra in 1816 and from the Conservatoire in 1817, and was succeeded in both posts by Dauprat... Duvernoy was a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur: he died in Paris on 19 July 1838.

Duvernoy, by nature a second horn...was one of the first, if not the first, to bring the cor mixte style of playing to a high degree of excellence.... Some idea of the position he occupied in the musical life of Paris may be gathered from the poster announcing the first performance of Spontini's opera La Vestale for 15 December 1807. On this bill the words 'M. FERDERIC DUVERNOY exécutera les Solos de Cor' are in much larger letters than anything els relating to the performance, nor is the name of any other artist even printed in capitals.

Belgian critic, François-Joseph Fétis, in his epic series Biographie Universelle des Musiciens (v. III, p. 100, translated by Birchard Coar) had these rather damning comments regarding M. Duvernoy and his compositions:

Duvernoy was also attached to the chapel and to the private band of the Emperor Napoleon Bonapart who admired his talent which was of a special nature. Satisfied with acquiring a beautiful tone and perfect execution, Duvernoy limited the range of his instrument to a small number of notes which were included in the first and second horn, called by Dauprat Cor alto and Cor basse. This special classification which Duvernoy taught in the Conservatoire was the result of the mixture which he called Cor mixte. Whatever might be the perfection of his playing, a kind of monotony which did much harm to the effect he wished to produce, was the result of the few notes which he employed. As to his compositions, the melodies in them are common, rapid passages are inelegant and the accompaniments are poor. They have already fallen into complete oblivion. His compositions consisted of twelve concertos, three quintets for horn, two violins, viola and 'cello, some trios for horn, violin, and 'cello, three collections of duos for two horns, several books of sonatas and studies, some solos, some duos for piano and horn and finally a Method for Cor mixte. All these works have been printed in Paris and Germany. Duvernoy died in Paris, July 19, 1838.