Leonardo da Vinci’s multi-barrel weapon design is known as an organ gun. It combined 33 small cannons in a single array, resembling the pipes of a musical organ.
The arrangement was intended to increase the rate at which artillery could fire. The barrels could be loaded in advance and discharged in sequence or together, producing a broad volley against concentrated troops. Leonardo’s design also considered a wheeled carriage so the weapon could be moved on the battlefield.
The organ gun was not a modern machine gun. Each barrel still required loading, and Renaissance gunpowder weapons were slow, smoky, and difficult to control. Its value was the coordinated use of many barrels rather than continuous automatic fire. Leonardo’s drawing belongs to his wider military-engineering work on artillery, fortifications, and battlefield mobility.