Botti begins:
J’aimerais placer à ce lieu le memorium … de Saint Marc. Le curé de cette … église, en 312 ap. J.-C., fut le fameux Arius… Du porticus dont on aurait entouré le memorium, pas de vestiges.
I would like to place at this spot the memorial shrine (memorium) of Saint Mark. The parish priest of this church, in 312 CE, was the famous Arius, the heresiarch. Of the portico that would have surrounded the memorial shrine, there are no surviving traces.
Then he introduces an excerpt from Amélineau (French excerpt):
Dans les actes de Saint Pierre d’Alexandrie… il est fait d’abord mention d’une prison… où Arius essaya une réconciliation… Pierre… obligé de trouer le mur… les tribuns l’entraînèrent… au lieu nommé Taboukolôn… »
In the Acts of Saint Peter of Alexandria (commonly called the last of the martyrs), mention is first made of a prison in which the bishop was confined; the people kept watch so that their bishop would not be led to execution; Arius attempted a reconciliation there; Peter is said to have had the well-known vision attributed to him; and finally Peter was obliged to pierce a hole through the wall in order to go to execution without his people knowing, while the people continued guarding the doors. Having succeeded in leaving his prison unnoticed, the tribunes dragged him away and went to the place called Taboukolôn.
Botti then says:
COUVENT DE SAINT MARC, hors de Bab Charki, vers 860… “Extra portam orientalem Alexandriae… Monasterium Sancti Marci…” … les Vénitiens… lulerunt furtim corpus Sancti Marci… »
Convent/monastery of Saint Mark, outside Bab Charki (the eastern gate), around the year 860. Lumbroso annotated a passage of Mabillon, who (in abridged form) retells the account of Bernard, a French monk under Pope Nicholas (858–867), author of an Iter ad loca sancta. The quoted Latin says that outside the eastern gate of Alexandria there stood a monastery of Saint Mark with monks, and that from there the Venetians, Bernard reports, secretly carried off the body of Saint Mark from its custodian and transported it to their own island—testimony Mabillon treats as very strong for confirming Venetian possession.
Botti then draws two conclusions:
… pour croire à deux choses: 1° Qu’il y eut en 860 un couvent… près de son memorium… 2° Que la dépouille mortelle… en 860, n’était pas dans l’église copte… rue Cléopâtre… à l’intérieur d’Alexandrie.
This passage is decisive enough (given Mabillon’s usual restraint and seriousness) to believe two things: (1) that in 860 there was a Saint Mark monastery outside Bab-Charki, near his memorial shrine, with a guardian; and (2) that Saint Mark’s mortal remains, at the very least in 860, were not in the Coptic church of Saint Mark on Cleopatra Street, since that church is inside Alexandria.
Botti then reports another tradition. French excerpt:
… tradition des Jacobites… l’église de Saint Marc intra muros… bâtie sous Iohanus III (673–681)… L’enlèvement du corps… en 815…
According to Jacobite tradition, the intra-muros church of Saint Mark was built under John III (673–681); the removal of Saint Mark’s body would have occurred in 815, under the Melkite patriarch Christophoros and the Jacobite patriarch Jacobos I.
He suggests a later arrangement between Copts and Venetians, then quotes Frate Arcangelo (Italian). French excerpt:
… les Coptes et les Vénitiens… un arrangement… “Li Venetiani tengono ancora una capella…”
He implies that, centuries later, Copts and Venetians—sharing the aim of honoring Saint Mark—came to an arrangement. Arcangelo notes that the Venetians still maintained a chapel in the church of Saint Mark (with the traditional claim about Mark preaching from a pulpit there).
Finally the text gives details about Boukolia and a martyrium/sautôn. French excerpt:
… tombeau de Saint Marc… dans le quartier (?) Boukolia… … C’était un martyrium, ou un sauton… … vallée désignée pour les sépultures…
The Acts of the Passion of Patriarch Peter (the last of the martyrs) give details about Saint Mark’s tomb: the Evangelist’s tomb was in the district(?) called Boukolia. Near this tomb there was a portico and a dwelling where acts of devotion were performed in honor of the Evangelist. This was a martyrium (martyr-shrine), or a sautôn. To the south of this martyrium was the valley designated for burials. This place was not far.
In other words, Botti is absolutely correct with regards to the location of the martyrium of Mark. His reconstruction matches (and cites) the exact evidence and more importantly echoes a statement in Epiphanius regarding the presence of "ascetics" (= monks) already surrounding Arius at the site at the beginning of the fourth century. More interesting is the fact that Athanasius's monasteries are never connected with Boucolia or the martyrium.
