"Vel aliter" - ein mittelalterlicher Kommentator hat die Qual der Wahl

The paper examines the approach of Geoffrey of Vitry, the mediaeval commentator of the epic "Alexandreis", to variants in his reference text - variants due to the textual transmission, to ambiguous wording and to diverging explanations of necessary background knowledge. At the same time it analyses his use of keywords for the purpose of clarifying the structure of the severely abridged language characteristic of mediaeval comments.