When the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, entered London in June 1522, lavish entertainments were arranged to welcome and impress the imperial entourage. One of that number, however, took at least some hours away from the festivities to wander through the bookshops that congregated around St Paul's. The courtier was best known for his parentage: Hernan Colón's father was Christopher Columbus. While the father expanded knowledge of the world, the son wanted to gather learning together in his own book collection; the explorer's offspring was a librarian manqué, using his travels with the emperor to buy up books wherever he went, which he then catalogued time and again. During his brief visit to London, Colón added to his library by purchasing over 200 books. These included volumes from England's earliest printing presses: among them, an Aristotelian commentary by Alexander of Hales printed by Oxford's first printer, Theoderic Rood; two books, including a work of John Fisher's printed the previous year in Cambridge, by John Siberch; at least half a dozen printings for which Wynkyn de Worde was responsible, including Robert Whittington's epigrams; and about double that number from the press of Richard Pynson.

Rood of Cologne, de Worde de ducatu Lothoringie, Siberch of Siegburg and Pynson from Normandy: their names are a reminder that the pioneers of printing in England were primarily foreigners.