civil(p1 = v1, p2 = v2, p3 = v3, p4 = v4)
public
Creates a date object denoting the given calendar date.
In this class, BCE years are counted astronomically. Thus, the year before the year 1 is the year zero, and the year preceding the year zero is the year -1. The month and the day of month should be a negative or a positive number (as a relative month/day from the end of year/month when negative). They should not be zero.
The last argument should be a Julian day number which denotes the day of calendar reform. Date::ITALY (2299161=1582-10-15), Date::ENGLAND (2361222=1752-09-14), Date::GREGORIAN (the proleptic Gregorian calendar) and Date::JULIAN (the proleptic Julian calendar) can be specified as a day of calendar reform.
Date.new(2001) #=> #<Date: 2001-01-01 ...> Date.new(2001,2,3) #=> #<Date: 2001-02-03 ...> Date.new(2001,2,-1) #=> #<Date: 2001-02-28 ...>
See also ::jd.