On Hofmann–Streicher universes

Abstract We take another look at the construction by Hofmann and Streicher of a universe $(U,{\mathcal{E}l})$ for the interpretation of Martin-Löf type theory in a presheaf category $[{{{\mathbb{C}}}^{\textrm{op}}},\textsf{Set}]$ . It turns out that $(U,{\mathcal{E}l})$ can be described as the nerve of the classifier $\dot{{\textsf{Set}}}^{\textsf{op}} \rightarrow{{\textsf{Set}}}^{\textsf{op}}$ for discrete fibrations in $\textsf{Cat}$ , where the nerve functor is right adjoint to the so-called “Grothendieck construction” taking a presheaf $P :{{{\mathbb{C}}}^{\textrm{op}}}\rightarrow{\textsf{Set}}$ to its category of elements $\int _{\mathbb{C}} P$ . We also consider change of base for such universes, as well as universes of structured families, such as fibrations.