Leonardo da Vinci designed an organ gun, a weapon with several parallel barrels fired in sequence or together.
The organ gun took its name from the visual resemblance between its grouped gun barrels and the pipes of a musical organ. Leonardo’s version arranged multiple small cannons on a frame, allowing a large number of shots to be directed toward an enemy formation. The concept was part of his work on military engineering for Renaissance patrons.
An organ gun was not a single standardized weapon, and historical examples varied in their number of barrels, mounting, and firing arrangements. Leonardo’s design is therefore best understood as a proposed multi-barrel firearm rather than a mass-produced model. It also differs from a modern machine gun, because the barrels were separate and black-powder loading limited its speed.
The design illustrates Leonardo’s interest in increasing battlefield firepower through mechanical organization. Grouping barrels could create a broad volley, but reloading remained slow and cumbersome.