When weary of study, "for lacke of better exercise he would take his horse and ryde about the Market Hill." But he has words of praise for the Cambridge school of theology:
In the University of Cambridge instead of sophistical arguments, their theologians debate in a sober, sensible manner and depart wiser and better men.
PART OF HAMOND'S PLAN OF CAMBRIDGE, 1592
It was to this Cambridge and, probably, to this patron in Cambridge that John Siberch came. The single reference to his place of residence and to his position in the university occurs in the Annals of Dr Caius:
The space (he writes) between the gate of humility and the gate of Virtue was formerly occupied by a tenement called the King's Arms. This was once the residence of John Sibert, alias Siberch, the University Printer, who printed some books of John Lydgate and others, and of Erasmus when he was residing at Cambridge.
The "tenement called the King's Arms" explains the use by Siberch of the royal arms as a printer's device; but although cum gratia et privilegio appears on the title-page of several books printed by him, there is no official confirmation of his having held the office of university printer[5].
There are entries, however, in Grace Books and in the Audit Book of the university which show that in 1520 or 1521 the university advanced to him the sum of twenty pounds:
Obligatur doctor Manfeld loco et vice magistri Norres pro summa pecunie quam recepit Johannes bibliopola ab universitate[6].