ABSTRACT
In their quests to acquire preternatural objects and exchange them with their social and economic peers, the last two count-kings of the Crown of Aragon, Joan el Caçador, “the Hunter” (r. 1387–96), and Martí l'Humà, “the Humane” (r. 1396–1410), applied the full range of mechanisms available in their courts and bureaucracies. The kings' vigorous participation in a late medieval spiritual economy is evidenced in their choice of quest objects—respectively pieces of unicorn horn and relics of local and transnational Christian saints—and their use of diplomatic means to acquire these tangible pieces of the preternatural. This article investigates the reigns and spiritual proclivities of these sibling sovereigns, Joan and Martí, illuminating to scholars of the medieval past the kings' markedly different personalities and ruling styles.
