Leonardo da Vinci designed an organ gun with multiple small guns arranged in three rows.
The weapon was intended to fire a large number of projectiles in succession. Its name comes from the visual resemblance between the parallel gun barrels and the pipes of a musical organ. The arrangement could provide a broad volley while one row was being loaded or aimed.
Leonardo’s military notebooks contain several proposals for improving artillery and battlefield firepower. The organ gun belongs to that wider group of Renaissance experiments with coordinated guns and faster firing systems.
It is not the same as Leonardo’s armored tank concept. The organ gun is a stationary or carriage-mounted artillery design, whereas the tank was imagined as a mobile armored vehicle. Historical drawings do not prove that every version was constructed or used in combat.