Spectra Laboratory

The spectra laboratory was located in a large room on the first floor of the Papal Summer Palace, next to the center courtyard, in the eastern side of the palace overlooking Lake Albano. The Jesuit community was located immediately above this room; it is now the hall of Papal Portraits.

In this lab, samples of pure metals were prepared and vaporized (left side of the image); the light emitted would be passed through a prism or grating (center of the image) to split it into its individual colors; and then the light would be passed down a long tube to spread out the colors as much as possible before being imaged on a photographic plate (right side of the image).