John Siberch

The family moved from Sieglar (Lair), to nearby Siegburg, during his childhood and he adopted the name of this town when he enrolled at the University of Cologne as Johann de Syberch, on 5 December 1492.

His wife's sister Gertrud was married to the bookseller Franz Birckmann of Cologne, a major importer of books to Germany, France, the Netherlands and England with establishments in Paris, Antwerp and London.

Assisted by this loan, Siberch set up his business as a bookseller, binder and printer in a tenement known as the King's Arms on the site of what is now Tree Court of Gonville & Caius College.

However, the authors, translators and dedicatees comprise many of the major contemporary figures of church, state and academia, including bishops John Fisher of Rochester and Nicholas West of Ely, Richard Pace, Secretary of State to Henry VIII, the royal physician Thomas Linacre and, above all, the great humanist scholar Desiderius Erasmus and his circle, while the books touch upon significant issues of the day, such as religious reform and the new humanist learning.

In addition to academic works, perhaps in an attempt to boost his income, Siberch printed more popular titles, including a Latin grammar for schools, poetry and an almanac.

His daughter Baetzgen married an Englishman and records suggest that Siberch returned to England and served as a priest in the parish of St Olave, Southwark, approximately from 1529 to 1540.

Aside from the coat-of-arms and lettering, the design of covers and title pages of early 20th-century Cambridge Press publications, like this cover of The Migration of Birds (1912) by Thomas Coward , is that used by Siberch in 1521