Leonardo da Vinci designed an organ gun with multiple gun barrels arranged in rows.
The weapon is commonly associated with Leonardo’s late-fifteenth-century military designs. Its many small cannons were arranged in parallel rows on a frame, giving the machine an appearance similar to the pipes of a musical organ. The arrangement was intended to let a crew fire a broad volley before repositioning or reloading.
Leonardo’s design is often described as a 33-barrelled organ gun, although the exact interpretation depends on the surviving drawing and how the barrels are counted. The weapon was not a machine gun in the modern sense: it did not use automatic loading or continuous powered firing. It was instead a grouped artillery system designed to concentrate fire.
The concept reflects a recurring Renaissance military goal: increasing the effect of gunpowder weapons through multiple barrels. Similar volley weapons existed in other traditions, so Leonardo should not be treated as the sole inventor of the idea. His contribution was a clearly documented design combining repeated barrels with a movable firing platform.