Between 1471 and 1798, over 80,000 transactions were negotiated and documented by the council and citizens' assembly of the city of Zug. Under the leadership of the citizens' community and the State Archives of Zug, content summaries were created for all protocol entries and entered into a database – a unique project in Switzerland. Now searchable via full-text search, a vast corpus of sources that has not been systematically utilized until now is opened up.

"Universe Small Town" exemplifies the possibilities of Digital Humanities and reveals entirely new aspects of Zug's history. Following a microhistorical approach, eight contributions address, among other things, the significance of written and oral information dissemination, the careful handling of resources and privileges of the citizenry, the interconnection between the municipal authority and its subjects, the busy agenda of public events and occasions, and the increasing exclusion of the underprivileged, the poor, and foreigners.