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..."

CRITICAL: Verbatim Quoting

When presenting text in quotation marks:

• The quoted text MUST appear verbatim in the get_quote or get_book_text response
• NEVER reconstruct quotes from memory — even if you "know" the text from training data
• If you can't find the exact passage, say so — don't approximate
• Copy-paste from the tool response, then trim with ellipses (…) if needed
• If the Source Library translation differs from other known translations (e.g., Woodcroft 1851 for Hero's Pneumatica), use the Source Library version — that's the point of citing it

Section References

Use the section headings from Source Library's translation, not from other editions. If the Source Library translation says "The construction of a mechanism so that when a fire is lit, the doors open automatically", cite that — don't substitute "Theorem 37" from a different edition.

API Endpoints

Search

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

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

Get Quote (single page — use before quoting)

curl -s "https://sourcelibrary.org/api/books/hero-pneumatica-1693/quote?page=68"

Returns translation, original text, and citation for ONE page. ALWAYS use this tool before putting text in quotation marks — copy the exact text from the response.

Get Book Text (multi-page reading)

curl -s "https://sourcelibrary.org/api/books/BOOK_ID/text?from=1&to=50"

Returns up to 50 pages. Use for reading/analysis. When quoting from this response, copy text verbatim.

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. Use get_quote for each page you want to quote — copy text verbatim
4. Present findings with inline citations using the exact text from the response

Example

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

# Get quote for citing (always use slug, not hex ID)
curl -s "https://sourcelibrary.org/api/books/drebbel-1628/quote?page=57"

Citing

Use the citation.inline from the response:

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