Abstract. Let P be the category whose objects are posets and whose morphisms are partial mappings a: P-> Q satisfying (i) V p,q e dom a [p < q =* a(p) < a(q)] and The full subcategory Py of P consisting of all finite posets is shown to be dually equivalent to the category of finite Brouwerian semilattices and homomorphisms. Under this duality a finite Brouwerian semilattice A corresponds with M(A), the poset of all meet-irreducible elements of A. The product (in P,) of n copies (n E N) of a one-element poset is constructed; in view of the duality this product is isomorphic to the poset of meet-irreducible elements of the free Brouwerian semilattice on n generators.If V is a variety of Brouwerian semilattices and if A is a Brouwerian semilattice, then A is V-critical if all proper subalgebras of A belong to V but not A. It is shown that a variety V of Brouwerian semilattices has a finite equational base if and only if there are up to isomorphism only finitely many V-critical Brouwerian semilattices. This is used to show that a variety generated by a finite Brouwerian semilattice as well as the join of two finitely based varieties is finitely based. A new example of a variety without a finite equational base is exhibited. 0. Introduction. The interest in Brouwerian semilattices has been motivated mainly from two seemingly different directions. First there is intuitionistic propositional logic: The Lindenbaum algebra of its fragment £/c, which consists of formulas containing only implication and conjunction as logical connectives, is a free Brouwerian semilattice on a countable number of generators. Thus a formula is a tautology relative to £/c if and only if it is valid in every Brouwerian semilattice. In addition the validity relation between formulas and Brouwerian semilattices sets up a Galois connection between extensions of £/c and subvarieties of the variety of Brouwerian semilattices. Consequently algebraic methods can be successfully employed to deal with problems of a logical nature. Examples of this approach are the papers [31] and [52]; it must be said, however, that historically it was mostly full intuitionistic propositional logic (with disjunction and possibly negation) that was studied and thus on the algebraic side more interest was created in Brouwerian lattices and Heyting algebras.On the other hand the main pioneer in the study of Brouwerian semilattices, Nemitz, considered them as algebraic objects in their own right. In [34] he initiated