Why did Giovanni Fontana write his book in cipher?

[davidjackson]

After writing the above, I am reminded of a more modern equivalent.
A naturalist (I forget the name) studying penguins at the beginning of the 20th century was horrified to find evidence of homosexual promiscuity amongst them.
In his scientific reports back to the UK, he wrote the offending passages outlining these practices in classical Greek. The editor of the scientific journal published them in this way, so as to allow the educated man to understand an interesting fact of nature without offending or scaring the casual reader by this glimpse into the nature of the penguin.