Leonardo da Vinci sketched an organ gun with 33 small cannon barrels.
The design arranged the barrels in a fan-shaped formation so that many shots could be fired in a short period. The name “organ gun” comes from the visual resemblance between grouped gun barrels and the pipes of a musical organ. Leonardo’s drawing is one of several Renaissance attempts to increase the rate of artillery fire.
The concept was not a modern machine gun. The barrels were separate pieces, and reloading would still have been slow and difficult. Its proposed advantage was concentrated volley fire: multiple projectiles could be launched together or in rapid succession across a broad area.
Leonardo worked during a period when rulers actively commissioned new military technologies. His notebooks include weapons, fortifications, bridges, and machines, but many designs remained proposals rather than manufactured battlefield equipment.