source-research

Search and cite primary sources from Source Library. Use when asked what historical authors wrote, to find quotes from old texts, investigate alchemical or philosophical works, or cite translated Latin/German sources.

Source Research

Search the Source Library collection of translated historical texts and retrieve quotes with citations.

When to Use

"What did Drebbel write about..."
"Find quotes about quintessence"
"What do historical sources say about..."
"Cite primary sources for..."

API Endpoints

Search

curl -s "https://sourcelibrary.org/api/search?q=QUERY"

Options: language=Latin, has_doi=true, limit=10

Get Quote

curl -s "https://sourcelibrary.org/api/books/BOOK_ID/quote?page=N"

Returns translation, original text, and citation.

Get Book

curl -s "https://sourcelibrary.org/api/books/BOOK_ID"

Workflow

Search for the topic
Note book IDs and page numbers from results
Get full quotes from relevant pages
Present findings with inline citations

Example

# Search
curl -s "https://sourcelibrary.org/api/search?q=quintessence&limit=5"

# Get quote
curl -s "https://sourcelibrary.org/api/books/6836f8ee811c8ab472a49e36/quote?page=57"

Citing

Use the citation.inline from the response:

"The Fifth Essence, red like a ruby, is immutable." (Drebbel 1628, p. 57)