Accounts of the intellectual and educational development of northern France in the central and late Middle Ages rarely give much attention to ties with or scholars from the Iberian Peninsula. The Carolingian renaissance of the late eighth and ninth centuries is usually described as fueled by scholars from Italy, such as Peter of Pisa or Paul the Deacon, or from England and Ireland, such as Alcuin or John Scotus Eriugena. Contributions from a number of émigrés from Spain are less discussed. Theodulf of Orléans, Agobard of Lyons or Claudius of Turin are identified by their episcopal appointments but little attention is paid to their Iberian origins. Nor is the impact of Iberian learning highlighted in scholarship on Western Europe. Accounts of the twelfth-century renaissance generally acknowledge how Gerbert of Aurillac's studies at Barcelona in the late tenth century shaped his subsequent teaching at Reims; or how Adelard of Bath's travels in Spain enriched his knowledge of natural philosophy; and how the importance of Toledo as a center of translation facilitated the transmission of philosophical texts to northern Europe. Yet the leading figures in the standard narrative of northern European culture in the twelfth century are St Anselm, Hugh of St Victor, Peter Abelard, John of Salisbury, Bernard of Clairvaux and other Italian, German, English or French figures.

After the acknowledgement of the contributions of Petrus Hispanus to the study of grammar in the twelfth century or the contributions in logic by another Petrus Hispanus in the thirteenth century, Iberian culture ceases to be part of the major narrative of intellectual history.