Leonardo da Vinci designed an organ gun with multiple rows of barrels.
An organ gun, also known as a ribauldequin, groups several small gun barrels on a frame. Leonardo’s version was intended to fire many projectiles in a coordinated sequence, increasing the amount of fire delivered against an approaching force.
The name comes from the resemblance between the rows of barrels and the pipes of a musical organ. Leonardo’s military studies explored ways to improve loading, aiming, and rapid discharge, but the mechanisms remained dependent on gunpowder technology and the limits of Renaissance metallurgy.
An organ gun was not a machine gun in the modern sense. It had multiple separate barrels rather than a self-loading firing system, and crews still had to prepare and operate the weapon. The design belongs to the family of volley weapons used in early European warfare.