Leonardo da Vinci’s fan-shaped multiple-barrel weapon was an organ gun.
The design used several small guns arranged on a frame, often shown in three rows or a fan-like formation. The name comes from the resemblance between its parallel barrels and the pipes of a musical organ. By preparing multiple barrels, the weapon could fire a volley rather than relying on a single shot.
Leonardo’s version belongs to a broader family of Renaissance volley weapons, so it should not be confused with a modern machine gun. It still required manual loading and ignition, and the drawings do not prove that Leonardo’s exact model was built or used in battle. His military notebooks also included fortified vehicles, bridges, artillery, and siege devices. The organ gun illustrates his interest in increasing battlefield firepower through arrangement and coordinated discharge.