What Leonardo da Vinci military design placed multiple guns on a rotating platform?

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Leonardo da Vinci’s multiple-gun design is known as the 33-barrelled organ.

The weapon consisted of three rows of eleven small cannon barrels mounted on a wheeled frame. The rows could be raised or lowered, allowing one row to fire while the others were prepared. Its nickname comes from the visual arrangement of the barrels, which resembles the pipes of a musical organ.

The design sought to increase the speed and continuity of artillery fire while retaining mobility. It was a concept rather than a confirmed battlefield weapon, and no evidence shows that Leonardo’s exact version was successfully deployed.

The 33-barrelled organ is sometimes confused with Leonardo’s armored fighting vehicle. The two designs belong to the same military-engineering interests, but the organ is a separate artillery machine built around multiple barrels.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Oct. 2026

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