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.
Search the Source Library collection of translated historical texts and retrieve quotes with citations.
When presenting text in quotation marks:
get_quote or get_book_text responseUse 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.
curl -s "https://sourcelibrary.org/api/search?q=QUERY"
Options: language=Latin, has_doi=true, limit=10
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.
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.
curl -s "https://sourcelibrary.org/api/books/BOOK_ID"
get_quote for each page you want to quote — copy text verbatim# 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"
Use the citation.inline from the response:
"The Fifth Essence, red like a ruby, is immutable." (Drebbel 1628, p. 57)