Buffon’s Natural History, as an emblematic work of the Enlightenment, enjoyed considerable success as soon as its first volumes were published in 1749, a success that continued uninterruptedly until the end of the 19th century and, to a lesser extent, beyond. One of the consequences of this success is the existence of a very large number of editions of all types, complete or not, more or less close to the original, in French or translated into foreign languages. All those editions form a vast bibliographical maze, especially since the first edition, comprising 36 volumes published over 40 years and divided into several autonomous series, is itself already complex. This paper aims to help find one’s way through this labyrinth for the period before 1810, by establishing a first reasoned and as complete as possible inventory of French editions. At the same time, it examines the characteristics and issues of these editions, the role they played in the dissemination of Buffon’s ideas and the way in which they oriented their reading. It especially underlines the very significant change in the reception of Buffon’s thought, as shown by several editions published in Paris from 1798 onwards, in connection with the transformations of the general scientific context.