The requirements on the radiation source, the monochromator/mirror, the diffractometer, and the crystal dispersive analyzer for an optimum instrumentation dedicated to high resolution resonant inelastic scattering experiments are formulated. The possibility for the application of dispersion compensation is stressed. A provisional instrumentation at the HARWI–Compton beamline is described and test measurements of the resonant inelastic scattering cross section of Cu for incident photon energies scanning across theKthreshold and for scattered photon energies near theK&agr;1line are reported. By means of model calculation the important role of correct absorption correction of resonant inelastic scattering data is emphasized. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.