The project · Source Bridge

Five hundred years of the collection, one paste away.

A library of live web components, each reading the real Source Library API, built so an Embassy editor can drop a primary-source surface into a Webflow page in under a minute. No build step, no developer, no waiting.

Explore the components See them in place

Live components

Works in the collection

From a 400-year-old book to a live web component.

The whole path, end to end. The first three steps are already done for you — your only job is the last one.

The books

Rare hermetic, alchemical, and mystical works, held at the Embassy in Amsterdam.

The Embassy

Digitised

The Source Library scans every page, runs OCR, translates it, and mints a DOI.

The Source Library

One public API

All of it is published through a single open API — free, CORS-open, Creative-Commons licensed.

GET sourcelibrary.org/api/…The Source Library

A component

A small Source Bridge component reads that API live, right in the visitor's browser.

Source Bridge

Your page

Paste one line of HTML into a Webflow Embed block. No build, no server, no developer.

<iframe src="…/embed/…">You

No API key, no server, no build step. The component is a single themeable iframe — it works in Webflow, or any site that lets you paste HTML.

What you can build

One API surface, every shape it can take.

The same collection becomes a rail, a reader, a citation, a search box, a wall of emblems. Pick a category to see the components in it — each one live, each one embeddable.

Browse and surface the collection.

Recently Translated Rail

A self-updating rail of the works most recently brought into translation.

/books/library?sort=last_translation_at

First Translations

Works translated for the first time ever — new to the modern world.

/books/library · is_first_translation

Fully Translated Works

The works closest to 100% translated, ready to read end to end.

/books/library · translation_percent

Chronology Rail

The collection laid out along five centuries of publication.

/books/library sorted by year

Book of the Day

A single featured work, rotating daily from the collection.

/books/library

Bookshelf

A dense poster grid of cover scans — the collection as a wall of books.

/books/library

Collection Spotlight

A wide promotional banner spotlighting one work or theme.

/books/library

Single Work Card

One embeddable card for a specific work, by id or slug.

/books/:id

Who it's for

Built for the people who run the site.

The same components serve four very different jobs. Here's what each person gets.

Curator

Scholarship & collection

Every component is anchored to a real, attributable object in the Source Library — nothing is decorative invention.

Examine →

Editor

Articles & publishing

Components paste into a Webflow Embed block and pull live content — no CMS migration, no developer round-trip.

Compose →

Marketing Lead

Story & reach

Self-updating, on-brand surfaces that make the Embassy feel active without a content calendar.

Showcase →

Developer

Integration & API

Vanilla HTML/JS/CSS embeds with no build step, hitting a CORS-open API. The React app is the showcase; the embed is the deliverable.

Integrate →

How a component page works

Every component gets the full showcase.

Open any component and you get a complete, honest documentation page — live preview, editorial pitch, a playground, the copy-paste embed, and the raw data underneath. The standard is Stripe and Linear docs, not “good for a museum project.”

Open an example

1
A live preview
Every page opens with the real component, running against the Source Library API right now — not a screenshot, not a mockup.
2
The pitch
Why the component exists, in editorial terms: the job it does for a curator, editor, or marketer.
3
Where it lives
The same component shown in three Embassy contexts — homepage, article, landing page — so its fit is obvious.
4
Tune it yourself
An isolated playground. Change the theme, density, and counts; the preview updates live, exactly as the embed will.
5
Copy the embed
One line of HTML for a Webflow Embed block. The playground writes the exact data-attributes for you.
6
The data underneath
No hidden pipeline — the precise request and the raw JSON it returns, mapped straight onto the component.

From paste to published

Copy one line. Drop it in a Webflow HTML block. Done.

No build step, no plugin, no developer. Every component is a single themeable iframe. Pick one, copy its embed, and watch the live preview update — exactly what your visitors will see.

WWebflow Designer · Embed

1Drag a Webflow Embed element onto the page.
2Paste the snippet — one line, no dependencies.
3Publish. It reads live data on every visit.

HTML Embed block

<!-- Recently Translated Rail · Source Library × Embassy of the Free Mind -->
<iframe
  src="https://embassy-sourcelibrary-ds.vercel.app/embed/recently-translated?theme=dark"
  title="Recently Translated Rail"
  loading="lazy"
  style="width:100%;height:720px;margin:0;border:0;display:block;background:transparent;overflow:hidden"
></iframe>
<script>(function(){var s=document.currentScript,i=s.previousElementSibling;while(i&&i.nodeType!==1)i=i.previousSibling;if(!i||i.tagName!=="IFRAME")return;var O="https://embassy-sourcelibrary-ds.vercel.app",savedStyle="",savedOverflow="";function lift(){savedStyle=i.getAttribute("style")||"";savedOverflow=document.documentElement.style.overflow;i.setAttribute("style","position:fixed;inset:0;width:100vw;height:100vh;z-index:2147483647;border:0;margin:0;display:block;background:#000");document.documentElement.style.overflow="hidden"}function drop(){i.setAttribute("style",savedStyle);document.documentElement.style.overflow=savedOverflow}addEventListener("message",function(e){if(e.source!==i.contentWindow||e.origin!==O)return;var d=e.data;if(!d||d.source!=="source-library")return;if(d.type==="modal-open")lift();else if(d.type==="modal-close")drop()})})();</script>

Live previewReading the API

This is the collection

works — scanned, translated, and citable. Every cover here is real.

Five centuries

The collection, laid out across time.

From early-modern incunabula to the long eighteenth century — every work plotted by its year of publication, live from the API.

Chronology

Translated works from the Embassy collection, arranged across the centuries.

Questions

The honest answers.

Yes. Every component fetches the Source Library API in the visitor's browser, on every page load — nothing here is a screenshot or a one-time copy. When a new work is translated, it shows up on its own.

The story

Two institutions, one source.

The Embassy of the Free Mind, housed in the Huis met de Hoofden in Amsterdam, keeps the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica — one of the world's great collections of hermetic, alchemical, Rosicrucian, and mystical texts. For decades it has been a place you visit to stand near the objects.

The Source Library is the other half of the verb. It does the patient work of making those objects legible again: scanning, running OCR, translating page by page, attaching DOIs, and exposing everything through a public, CORS-open API under a Creative Commons licence.

This project — codename ad fontes — is the bridge: a library of web components, each reading a real Source Library endpoint, designed so an Embassy editor can drop a primary-source surface into a Webflow page in under a minute. Everything you have scrolled through runs against the live API. Nothing here is a mockup of a thing that might exist. It exists.

Ad fontes. To the sources. The rediscovery of ancient wisdom helped spark the Renaissance — and the tools to do it again are, finally, just a paste away.

Source LibraryEmbassy of the Free Mind

The rediscovery of ancient wisdom helped spark the Renaissance. It's time for another.
ad fontes — to the sources

Five hundred years of the collection, one paste away.

From a 400-year-old book to a live web component.

The books

Digitised

One public API

A component

Your page

One API surface, every shape it can take.

Recently Translated Rail

First Translations

Fully Translated Works

Chronology Rail

Book of the Day

Bookshelf

Collection Spotlight

Single Work Card

Built for the people who run the site.

Curator

Editor

Marketing Lead

Developer

Every component gets the full showcase.

A live preview

The pitch

Where it lives

Tune it yourself

Copy the embed

The data underneath

Copy one line. Drop it in a Webflow HTML block. Done.

The collection, laid out across time.

The honest answers.

Two institutions, one source.