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Didascalia: Codex
Atlanticus, folio 157 former folio 56 v. a
The folio contains three drawings of multi-barrelled
artillery. The 33-barrelled organ is the first above and is captioned
as follows, "Spingarde a organi. In su questo carro sie 33
scoppietti che se ne trae undici per volta". "Barrelled
organs" (because the barrels look like organ pipes). "This
gun machine will have 33 muzzles, which will be fired eleven at
a time". The folio as a whole was drawn between 1480 and 1482,
and may well be related to Leonardo's well-known letter to Ludovico
il Moro, in which he described his skill in making firearms that
could be moved fast and fired accurately.
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