The affair between Alfieri and Luisa Stolberg (cat. n. 30) caused great scandal. The poet, was invited to leave Rome and he left the city on the 4^th May, 1783. Whilst he was away, the Countess of Albany kept their intellectual and sentimental relationship alive by collecting the sonnets he composed for her (the sonnets by Psispsio for Psipsia), translating the Filippo into French and comparing the Oreste by Alfieri with that by Voltaire.
   Once having obtained a divorce from Charles Edward Stuart, Luisa Stolberg left Rome as well and settled in Martinsbourg where Alfieri joined her on the 16^th August, 1784. Forced to leave his beloved horses, he entrusted them to his friend Gori Gandellini to whom he addressed a chapter in terza rima. In the Autumn of 1784, he conceived Mirra in a period of great serenity brutally interrupted by the news of the death of his friend Gori. The memory of his friend, withdrawn and a convinced republican, inspired him to compose La virtù sconosciuta (cat. n. 83). From Alsatia he often wrote to his other friends in Siena Mario Bianchi and Teresa Regoli Mocenni.
Between 1785 and 1786 he worked on the composition and versification of Mirra. In the autographs of this tragedy he recorded all his working sessions. Thus, the papers become a diary where the poet creates connections between his sadness and the obscure passions of his tragic characters.