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The Praemium Erasmianum Foundation said in a statement that Noah, 39, was receiving the prize “for his inspired contribution to the theme ‘In Praise of Folly,’ named after Erasmus’s most famous book, which is filled with humor, social criticism and political satire.”

Erasmus, a Dutch humanist of the Renaissance best known for his ironic essay "In Praise of Folly," would have been appalled at such a grotesque misappropriation of his name.

It runs a popular confidence workshop and publishes a guide, On Confidence, that draws on the wisdom of Erasmus’s 1509 essay In Praise of Folly, and suggests that a willingness not only to be vulnerable but also to be a fool is crucial to evolving greater self-worth.

Since the 1990s, Mr. Dell’Utri’s foundation has published the Library of Utopia, an Italian series reissuing classics, including “Utopia,” Erasmus’ “In Praise of Folly,” Marx and Engels’s “The Communist Manifesto” and Carlo Collodi’s “The Adventures of Pinocchio.”

Miller was so spendthrift with himself, and so loud in praise of folly, that he laid himself open to every charge.