Which weapon did Leonardo da Vinci sketch as a rapid-fire field gun?

Leonardo da Vinci sketched a rapid-fire field gun known as the 33-barrel organ.

The weapon consisted of 33 small cannons arranged in three rows on a wheeled frame. Each row contained 11 barrels. The arrangement was intended to allow one row to fire while another cooled and a third was reloaded, increasing the rate at which shots could be delivered compared with a single cannon.

The design is commonly described as a volley gun rather than a true machine gun. It still required separate loading and firing, and there is no evidence that Leonardo’s drawing became a successful battlefield weapon. Its practical performance would also have depended on the quality of gunpowder, the strength of the barrels, and the ability of crews to handle repeated discharges.

The nickname “organ” refers to the visual arrangement of many parallel barrels, which resembles the pipes of a musical organ. The concept shows Leonardo applying coordinated multiple firing to Renaissance artillery.