Leonardo da Vinci sketched an organ gun with many small cannons arranged in three rows.
An organ gun is a multi-barrel firearm whose barrels are grouped together, allowing several shots to be fired in succession or in a concentrated volley. Leonardo’s version used rows of small guns mounted on a wheeled frame. Its name comes from the resemblance between the parallel barrels and the pipes of a musical organ.
Leonardo included the design among his military engineering studies. The arrangement could increase the number of projectiles fired rapidly, while the frame made it possible to move the weapon. Like many of his battlefield machines, it was a proposal rather than a clearly documented operational weapon.
The organ gun was not a modern machine gun. It lacked automatic loading and continuous fire; soldiers would still need to prepare and reload the individual barrels. Leonardo’s drawing is best understood as a Renaissance volley weapon that explored concentrated firepower using multiple conventional guns.