What was Leonardo da Vinci’s 33-barrel weapon designed to fire?

Leonardo da Vinci’s 33-barrel weapon was designed to fire multiple cannonballs.

The machine arranged many small gun barrels in a row or grouped formation. Its purpose was to increase the rate of fire compared with a conventional cannon, which had to be reloaded after each shot. The arrangement is often described as an early multiple-barrel gun or volley weapon.

Leonardo’s military notebooks contain numerous proposals for artillery and battlefield machinery. The 33-barrel design was an idea on paper, not a surviving standard weapon from Leonardo’s workshop, so modern accounts should distinguish the drawing from a confirmed battlefield deployment.

The weapon is sometimes loosely called a machine gun, but that modern label can be misleading. It lacked the continuous loading and automatic firing mechanisms associated with modern machine guns.