  From a logical point of view, Stone duality for Boolean algebras relates
theories in classical propositional logic and their collections of models. The
theories can be seen as presentations of Boolean algebras, and the collections
of models can be topologized in such a way that the theory can be recovered
from its space of models. The situation can be cast as a formal duality
relating two categories of syntax and semantics, mediated by homming into a
common dualizing object, in this case 2. In the present work, we generalize the
entire arrangement from propositional to first-order logic. Boolean algebras
are replaced by Boolean categories presented by theories in first-order logic,
and spaces of models are replaced by topological groupoids of models and their
isomorphisms. A duality between the resulting categories of syntax and
semantics, expressed first in the form of a contravariant adjunction, is
established by homming into a common dualizing object, now $\Sets$, regarded
once as a boolean category, and once as a groupoid equipped with an intrinsic
topology. The overall framework of our investigation is provided by topos
theory. Direct proofs of the main results are given, but the specialist will
recognize toposophical ideas in the background. Indeed, the duality between
syntax and semantics is really a manifestation of that between algebra and
geometry in the two directions of the geometric morphisms that lurk behind our
formal theory. Along the way, we construct the classifying topos of a decidable
coherent theory out of its groupoid of models via a simplified covering theorem
for coherent toposes.
