The Abbey was founded in the 6th century by the son of Clovis I, Childebert I (ruled 511–558). It was a centre of intellectual life in the French Catholic church until it was disbanded during the French Revolution. An explosion of saltpetre levelled the Abbey and its cloisters, but the church was spared. The abbey church remains as the Église de Saint-Germain-des-Prés, one of the oldest churches in Paris. The tomb of philosopher René Descartes is located in one of the church's side chapels. This area is also part of the Latin Quarter, because the Abbey donated some of its lands along the Seine for the erection of buildings to house the University of Paris, where Latin was the lingua franca among students who arrived from all over Europe and shared no other language.

The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter of Paris, which was the historical house of the former University of Paris. The name is derived from the Collège de Sorbonne, founded in 1257 by the eponymous Robert de Sorbon as one of the first significant colleges of the medieval University of Paris. The university predates the college by about a century, and minor colleges had been founded already during the late 12th century. During the 16th century, the Sorbonne became involved with the intellectual struggle between Catholics and Protestants. The University served as a major stronghold of Catholic conservative attitudes and, as such, conducted a struggle against King Francis I's policy of relative tolerance towards the French Protestants, except for a brief period during 1533 when the University was placed under Protestant control.%0A%0AThe Collège de Sorbonne was suppressed during the French Revolution, reopened by Napoleon in 1808 and finally closed in 1882. Today, it houses part or all of several higher education and research institutions such as Panthéon-Sorbonne University, Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Paris Descartes University, École pratique des hautes études, and Sorbonne University.