Leonardo da Vinci sketched an organ gun with multiple rows of gun barrels.
An organ gun, also called a ribauldequin, places several small firearms or barrels together so they can fire in succession or in a coordinated volley. Leonardo’s drawings show arrangements of barrels mounted on a frame, reflecting his interest in increasing firepower while reducing the delay between shots.
The nickname “organ gun” comes from the visual resemblance between the parallel barrels and the pipes of a musical organ. This was not a machine gun in the modern sense: the weapons still required separate loading and ignition, and the system did not provide continuous automatic fire.
Leonardo’s military notebooks contain many studies of artillery, fortifications, bridges, and armored vehicles. His organ-gun concept belongs to that broader program of engineering for warfare. It is best understood as a multi-barrel volley weapon, not as proof that Leonardo invented the modern machine gun.