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

1. Search for the topic
2. Note book IDs and page numbers from results
3. Get full quotes from relevant pages
4. 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)