Abstract Hugh Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres was published far more frequently and in more substantively different formats than has yet been recognized. Its publishing history suggests that as the book circulated across diverse locations for over a century, it supported a large array of uses, values, and meanings. By providing detailed bibliographic information on a single influential rhetoric, and by comparing its publication record to several other influential rhetorics, this essay seeks to use research in the history of the book to articulate a more nuanced history of rhetoric.